Wednesday, October 22, 2008

I'm going to AGU for the first time since 2000. I've tended to go to GSA instead, but AGU has been getting more and more interesting (even for someone who's primarily a geoscience educator rather than a researcher, at this point). In the past, AGU has seemed like a meeting for specialists, and if there wasn't a session on something I was actively involved in, the talks were difficult to follow. (I was completely lost by a talk about lightning that I saw on a whim eight years ago. No pictures. You know I'm a geologist... I go to talks to see the pretty pictures.)

I'm talking late (like 5:15 pm) on Wednesday. And that complicates things, because it's final exam week, and my exams are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. And flying in and out of Durango is time-consuming at best. I'm looking at giving my Structural Geology exam, then trying to get to the airport and get an early afternoon flight that will connect to San Francisco. And then... well, I can't realistically make it back in time for a 7:30 am Thursday intro exam or for my practical exam time for my sophomore mapping class. (Fortunately, the sophomores have to schedule individual times, so I've got flexibility there. The intro class... well, I can ask someone else to hand out the tests for me, I guess.)

I was planning to go for one day, max, because San Francisco is expensive and I've often felt out-of-place at AGU. But I'm wondering whether the conference has changed, and whether a hopeless generalist would be able to stay busy all through Thursday. (There are a number of structure sessions, even if I don't want to leave my broad area of expertise.) Those of you who go to AGU - would it be worth staying another day, to learn content for teaching (as opposed to keeping up with research related to mine)?

And are you going to AGU? Want to meet up? (That's a question both for old friends and for geobloggers.)

Edit: I've booked my flights, arriving late afternoon on Tuesday and leaving in the evening on Thursday. (There aren't actually red-eye flights to Durango, but there are flights leaving after 5 pm that connect to Durango. Wow.) So can we have a blogger get-together on Tuesday or Wednesday evening?

5 comments:

yay, Kim! I'll be there Tuesday-Fridayish. I'd say there's more than enough to keep you busy for two days - even just for keeping up with teaching. You might also view it as doing some research on grad programs etc (thinking back to your hydrology career related post).

Too bad about missing your talk, Christie. Maybe in the future I'll plan my conference schedule around AGU instead of GSA, and will get tickets early, before the cheap(er) tickets are gone.

But it's really cool that there might be a blogger gathering with multiple female structural geology bloggers!

ScienceWoman, it will be interesting to see whether AGU is as good a place to think about possible grad programs as GSA has been. (The alumni gatherings at GSA have been great networking over the years.)

I will be there all week (except for maybe Thurs morning) ... I'm chairing a poster session Wed afternoon and probably hangin' out by a colleague's poster on Tues afternoon ... other than that, I'm open.

A blogger meet-up should definitely happen. Last year, me, Andrew, Maria, and Thermochronic got some beers ... good times.

Hanging on by my nails...

About Me

I'm a forty-something tenured geology professor at a small public college in the Rockies. I love mountains - hiking in them, looking at them, studying them.
You can reach me at shearsensibility at gmail dot com.
My opinions are my own - not my employer's, not my students', not my spouse's, not my graduate advisor's... just mine.